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34

THE COMANDANTE'S REBUKE.

file of men, and so did we at the other. We stood, linked arm and arm, as if we were unconcerned spectators of the scene. Then the comandante (who, by the way, was by no means disinclined to put his imperious uncle down) advanced to the front of the company, and in a very sensible and proper manner read Mora his lecture, and told him, that but for our clemency, he would have had to answer for his conduct before the governor of the province. Mora listened with a scowl on his face, and, the ceremony concluded, he set off that same day for his estancia, which he thenceforward made his permanent residence.

Very shortly afterwards Duval was united to his dear Rosa, and an excellent husband he proved to her. His father-in-law's estancia was placed under his active and judicious management, and prosperity followed his exertions; while all the family, when they saw the happiness which Rosa enjoyed as the wife of Duval, would often congratulate themselves on her escape from the misery of a union with the rich but jealous Mora.

Your's, &c.

W. P. R.

LETTER XXV.

THE AUTHORS to GENERAL MILLER.

the Under

Don Pedro Campbell's Services-The Winding up at Goya-The
Departure Arrival at the Guasú-Wasting of Time-The Pacù
-An Arrival on Board of the San José-Mr. E
writer-The Isleria-The Carboneros, or Charcoal-Burners-
The Caracoles-Sea Sickness-Arrival in the Outer Roads-The
Chacarero and his Spouse-An Equestrian Fête―The Cockney
Equestrian-Buenos Ayres Road and Pantanos-A Coach pre-
ferable to Horsemanship.

A DAY or two after the adventure of the guard-
house, Campbell came into Goya with the last of
our produce, and with all our troops of carts, which
were laden with it, and marshalled behind him.
He rendered us a faithful account of his ope-
rations, and seemed much to regret that his
stirring campaign was at an end.
We shall by
and bye give some account of his further career;
but we cannot take leave of him here without
saying that, wild and irregular as he was in his
ways, and in many of his doings, no man ever
served us in South America with more honesty,
tact, and zeal than he.

The paying off of our capataces, peons, and ser

36

DON PEDRO CAMPBELL'S SERVICES.

vants of every kind, was like the disbanding of a little army; and as we sold off our "munitions of war," without straining for a price, they were soon dispersed among the Campesinos, or country people, to be again usefully employed in the service of the province.

Our approaching departure, I may safely say, was viewed with general regret; and, from the many parties who had congregated around us, we not only had the heartiest good wishes for our future prosperity, but the warmest desire expressed that we should soon return to the province.

Poor Don Pedro Quesnèy, as we went on making our concluding arrangements, gave us many of his own peculiar tokens of regret: our friend Tuckerman (who had been in high spirits ever since the Quartèl affair), protested over and over again that the pain of his separation from us would only be inferior to that which he had felt on leaving Washington and Charlotte behind him; and Campbell made up his mind to allow twelve months to intervene before he returned to the service of "Pèpe," in the hope that the return of one or other of ourselves would again place him at the head of the Gaucho commerce of the province.

THE DEPARTURE.

37

Everything being ready for our departure, in October, 1816, we struck our camp at Goya. The village population assembled at the river side to see us set sail, and after many repeated and hearty adieus, we committed ourselves once more to the surface of the glassy Paraná. The goleta Nuestra Señora del Carmen, as the smaller vessel, and therefore drawing the least water, took the lead of the more majestic San José, which followed in the wake of her avant courier. We had the privilege of hoisting the English flag, in consequence of having received from the British commander on the Buenos Ayres station, what is technically called a "sailing letter," or passport for ourselves as British subjects, and for our property as that of a neutral and friendly state. We were so deeply laden, and so fully stowed, that we had only a little hole or crevice left for our personal accommodation between the after part of the cargo and deck. But we had by no means room to stand upright in this crevice. We lived, therefore, on the top of the troxa, or deck cargo, with an awning over us; and the splendid weather of the finest spring month which South America affords (October) enabled us to spend the whole passage

38

THE DEPARTURE.

without being once forced into our dingy and confined apartment below. We dined on the troxa, we read and wrote on the troxa: we dressed, undressed, and slept on the troxa; and on the troxa we smoked our segars and drank our Cognac, diluted with the pure water of the Paraná. We were laden to the river's edge: scarcely a plank of the vessel was to be seen above it, and we looked like the floating roof of a house, or rather like a stack of hay with masts and sails, swept onwards by the flood. Both vessels generally "brought up," in naval phraseology, at nightfall; and then the fires blazed, the Paraguay peons leapt gaily on shore; the beef was roasted for supper; out came the segar and the màté; round went the joke and the laugh; then came forth the guitar to accompany the song; and then, best of all, came sleep, sound sleep, -to refresh the weary, to minister day dreams of never-to-berealized happiness to the sanguine, and to throw the mantle of oblivion over the petty cares of happily the unfortunate few who allowed their working moments to be discomposed by the incidental rubs and hardships common to all, but only formidable to the disconcerted or faint of heart.

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